Josh solely sued the publishing company in June after unsuccessfully trying to join his sisters’ existing lawsuit against Bauer and other defendants. The lawsuit was in regard to In Touch Weekly breaking the bombshell news back in 2015 that Josh had molested five young girls as a teen, four of whom were his younger sisters.

Josh and the girls separately claimed that the documents shouldn’t have been published without their names redacted so that the public would not know the identities of the victims, all of whom were minors at the time of the molestation.

In his solo lawsuit, Josh stated that his “right to due process was violated” and his privacy was invaded. He sued for $75,000 in damages, lawyer’s fees and a jury trial.

“U.S. District Judge Tim Brooks also dismissed Bauer Publishing and its attorneys from both Duggar’s case and a case filed by four of his sisters, saying Bauer had a First Amendment right to publish information given to it under a Freedom of Information Act request,” Arkansas Online reported on Saturday.

“Even if one assumes that the disclosure failed to comply with Arkansas statutory redaction requirements, it is clear that the Bauer defendants cannot be held liable, for the city’s and county’s failure to follow the law,” Brooks wrote. He added that Bauer merely gave further publicity to true information about a person which is already public.

Arkansas Online reports that the only defendant remaining in Josh’s lawsuit is the Arkansas Department of Human Services, which “has never been served with the lawsuit.”

As for the lawsuit filed in May by Jill, Jinger, Jessa and Joy, the sisters lost their lawsuit about Bauer Publishing, the City of Springdale, Arkansas, Washington County, and several of the city officials (in their official capacity). The Duggars girls claimed in their lawsuit that those named were to blame for allowing the legal documents that exposed them as victims to be released.

In May, the City of Springdale released a statement saying the sisters’ claims against the city and its officials were “without merit and are false.”

While Judge Brooks has since dismissed the City of Springdale, Washington County and Springdale City Attorney Ernest Cate and former County Attorney Steve Zega, in their official capacities, he did not dismiss the claims against Attorney Ernest Cate, former Springdale Police Chief Kathy O’Kelley, or Maj. Rick Hoyt of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in their individual capacities. Those parts of the Duggars sisters’ lawsuit remain active.

Judge Brooks stated that the Duggar sisters had a reasonable expectation the information wouldn’t be released to the public when they provided it to the City officials when the incidents took place.

All three public officials remaining in the Duggar sisters’ lawsuit have filed motions to have themselves dismissed from the lawsuit, but Judge Brooks denied those motions. All three have appealed the rulings.

The Duggars sisters are seeking an unknown amount in compensatory and punitive damages.

For more information about the Josh Duggar Sex Abuse Scandal, click here.

If the sisters want to sue anyone due the pig of a brother or their parents. Tired of this free loading scamming family. The parents didn’t protect them the parents screwed up. Every rape victim doesn’t have the option of suing their attached known or unknown.

I’m very curious where this case is going to go from a legal standpoint. Legally, it seems no one did anything wrong, unless Arkansas has additional clauses about protecting a victim’s identity via redaction. Like, it’s someone’s job to go through and redact ANY identifying information, not just the names.

I would be super on board with this if the sisters came out and said, “The reason why we brought this lawsuit (not against the magazine, that was clearly a greedy bullshit money grab) is so that future victims can’t be outed by someone failing to take identifying information out of a report. That’s why, in addition to this lawsuit, we’re proposing such and such law be added to the books in Arkansas to further protect victims. As for the lawsuits against the city and against the individuals, any money awarded will be donated to services that counsel sexual abuse survivors (an ACTUAL service, nothing related to their fucked up church).”

If they did that, I’d be in support. But all they’re doing now is trying to blame ‘the secular media’ as well as Arkansas’ overworked and underpaid civil servants for their perverted brother’s sex crime.

The redaction issue is the main thing keeping the lawsuit going. They do have a legal duty not to release names or any information that will make the alleged victims’ identities known. In releasing what they did and naming them as underaged and of the home they were in essence outing the victims. The redaction should have gone further that it did if following statute.

They were minors their names should not have been released. The sisters were victims and now they are getting victimized again. I an disappointed in our judicial system.i too was a victim of child molestation. I am thankful I am not famous and I don’t have to worry about being exposed.

Two of the girls outed themselves when they went on national television and said they weren’t victims. And that Josh was just curious about girls. When the police report was made Josh was not a minor. The girls and his names were redacted in the police report. So really they had no case. They should sue Josh and their parents for letting it continue for over a year-and-a-half so he wouldn’t be charged as the criminal he is. They let the statute of limitations run out. Here’s the police report with the radecated names.https://m.imgur.com/a/zqPMi

I’m sorry for what you had to go through nobody should ever have to be exposed to something like that… Keep in mind though the GIRLS themselves were actually the ones to come forward to say it was them in the report… Yes there was speculation that it was them but they never had to Confirm the speculation THEY made that decision themselves

Jill and Jessa came forward, but Joy was outed. The magazine and/or other reports saying that the victim was Josh’s sister who was 5 years old in 2003 didn’t exactly secure anyone’s identity and Joy was still a minor when that was released.

Two of the girls outed themselves when they went on national television and said they weren’t victims. And that Josh was just curious about girls. When the police report was made Josh was not a minor. The girls and his names were redacted in the police report. So really they had no case. They should sue Josh and their parents for letting it continue for over a year-and-a-half so he wouldn’t be charged as the criminal he is. They let the statute of limitations run out. Here’s the police report with the radecated names.https://m.imgur.com/a/zqPMi

I am still disgusted how he TRIED to make it seem like he suffered as much as his victims. You know what you could do, Joshy boy?! NOT FONDLE YOUR SISTERS! You were (almost) an adult at that time and you gropped your 5 year old sister while you were reading her a story, who does that?! Didn’t he chase Jill to the laundry room too or sth? And ofc, they sent you to Jesus camp and everything was well, right?! I guess not cuz you cheated on your wife too. If it were any other family, they would send you to get REAL help, your sisters foremost too but cuz they like to blame the victims, it was their fault cuz somehow they made their brother want to touch them inappropriately. Even tho they dressed ‘modestly’ for their whole lives, wore leggins under skirts and everything. You (and your whole family, esp your parents who hid it all) are a disgrace.

Josh is a disgusting pig, his parents are assholes, and the sisters’ lawsuit had JimBlob all over it. Grifting money-grubbing, money grabbing shithead. Drawing more attention to the girl’s abuse. Making the girls forgive their abuser in front of their cult church. Kissing the ass of their number one prick of a son.

Josh you are not a victim. You were never a victim. You are the product of a dysfunctional, sexually repressive, abusive, fake Christian family. Your sisters, wife and children are victims. They only thing I’m sorry about is how your life will be a waste because you’ll never receive the real help you need and your wife will always stay with you because she’s brainwashed.

I always thought it was strange they haven’t married Jana off yet but now four of her younger sisters have been married off. Then it made some kind of f-ed up logic sort of sense to me. Jana was the only older girl not molested by Josh, and that most definitely has a lot to do with it. They wanted those tainted girls off their hands.
I blame the parents the most, as they are the ones who allowed their daughters to be repeatedly exposed to this incestuous pediphile. They did not protect their other kids from josh in any way, and those girls should be suing jim-bob and michelle!

I’m iffy on this situation. On one hand, the girls never should of been named (or made obvious of who the victims were). But on the other hand, there is NO way they are doing this for victim reasons. They are doing this because they are brainwashed by Jim Duggar. If anyone deserves to be punished, it’s obviously Josh but Jim should as well. He hid this, and let it happen to not 1, but 4 of his daughters. I highly doubt any of those girls have had therapy over this.

I hear ‘ya. They weren’t named, as that information was redacted. Yes, it wasn’t hard to figure out by some fill in the blank guesswork, however, as it’s been determined nothing illegal was done by publishing information from vetted FOIAct. The interesting thing is, if charges against Josh had actually been pursued by the county/state, none of this information would have ever gotten out, as under Arkansas law a court case would have given them victim rights (which would include this information not being eligible for release under FOIA, since there would be underage individuals involved and that info would be sealed). But because it was strictly a police report and no charges were filed, it was allowed to be released. I just feel really sad for the Duggar children (well, now adults). Imagine going through something like that as children and having a large majority of the blame placed on you as a victim due to the religious sect (Gothardism) you were born into.

There is no way any of them were given support over it either. I doubt they talked to a legit therapist or councillor. They probably talked to some crazy backwards thinking worship leader, who then made it their faults for simply being girls.

That’s how I feel too I just have a gut feeling it was some kind of Christian-based person who didn’t even have a PhD or was equipped to handle this kind of Trauma the worst part is I feel like they were not at all put the blame on Josh they would somehow make it everybody’s fault truly truly sad

Yes, the bible says that, but it also says the devil is trying to influence choices people make. So,it’s kind of like they think the temptation is just too much and the devil will, “take over ” these people are extreme. Keep that in mind. I don’t practice organized religion, but I have a pretty good understanding of it and these people are out there.

Their names were redacted, it’s just that having the same address and a butt ton of redacted siblings clued everyone in. If the Duggar girls want to sue anyone for privacy, they should be suing their parents for selling their lives for TV. Without that, they’d have privacy.

Gee, if only the Duggars had done the right thing at the time – alert the proper authorities, separate the molester from his victims, seek professional therapy for all involved – we wouldn’t be having this discussion now, would we?
But they CHOSE to put their greed for fame and fortune over the very serious needs of their children, so here we are.
Cry me a river, Duggars.